The embodiments described herein relate generally to gaming activities and, more particularly, to using a jackpot escrow account to minimize a number of interruptions to game play due to reportable events.
At least some known gaming systems enable players to make large wagers that may frequently result in winning outcomes having awards that exceed an amount requiring tax forms to be completed and filed with the appropriate local, state, and federal agencies. For example, a player that wins more than $1,199, i.e., a threshold amount, is required to report his winnings to at least the United States Internal Revenue Service in the form of a W-2G Gambling Winnings tax form. In at least some known gaming establishments, the required information, including the player's name, home address, social security number, and the like, as well as some form of personal identification, such as a driver's license or player tracking card is obtained manually. Such known gaming establishments then manually enter the data into the W-2G form and any other required form using the information received, as well as any other required gaming information, such as the amount won. Although the threshold amount has remained static, the amounts of wagers by players, especially high-stakes players, have increased dramatically. Larger wagers generally result in more frequent and intrusive interruptions to game play. Such interruptions may be annoying or disruptive to players. Moreover, gaming establishments must dedicate personnel to observing game play and to filling in the required forms. The additional personnel and their associated training, adds considerable cost to the maintenance of high-stakes rooms, and if players find the continual observance and manual information gathering annoying, such annoyances may result in a loss of potential gaming revenue for gaming establishments.
Accordingly, at least some known gaming systems have attempted to automatically generate the required tax forms. However, even those gaming systems require frequent interruptions to game play to collect player data and to obtain the player's signature or electronic signature. In some instances, such known gaming systems merely generate new forms for each reportable event detected during game play, rather than generating a cumulative form at the end of a gaming session that reports accrued winnings during the gaming session. Moreover, known gaming systems do not allow separate player accounts to be used as non-cashable credits during a gaming session and/or to be converted to cashable credits to reconcile with the gaming establishment at the end of a gaming session, while generating only a single form or set or forms.